Anti-corruption disclosures declined among Asean’s top companies in 2024 as leadership support increasingly shifts from governance towards climate-related issues, a new study has revealed.
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This marks a departure from the steady improvement that the 50 largest listed companies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have made in corporate integrity scores since 2020, according to the biennial study conducted by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School.
Overall, average disclosure scores, which were assessed along three dimensions – internal commitment to anti-corrpution, external commitment to anti-corruption, and reporting and monitoring – dropped from 69 per cent in 2022 to 64 per cent in 2024. Thailand retained its lead with an average score of 80 per cent, followed by Malaysia at 75 per cent and Singapore at 63 per cent. Meanwhile, the Philippines saw the largest decline, where scores fell by 11 percentage points to 55 per cent last year.
The overall decline was driven by a significant drop in the reporting and monitoring dimension, which covers whistleblowing-related mechanisms. While companies in most countries performed the strongest in their internal anti-corruption commitments, they did not necessarily translate into policies around engagements with external stakeholders, like suppliers or politicians.
Similar to the 2022 findings, the study pointed out that performance remained poor in these four aspects: leadership support of anti-corruption, application of anti-corruption policies to company representatives engaging with external parties, disclosures around regular monitoring programmes of anti-corruption, and application of anti-corruption policies to suppliers.
“Corruption erodes trust, stifles economic growth, and deepens inequality. The decline in anti-corruption disclosures we are seeing across Asean is a red flag,” said Lawrence Loh, director at Centre for Governance and Sustainability of NUS Business School. “As investors are increasingly prioritising environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, companies must strengthen their governance disclosures to enhance transparency and accountability, not just as a matter of compliance, but as a core business strategy.”
While all Asean countries have ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which requires parties to address implement anti-corruption policies, only Singapore and Malaysia have legal frameworks criminalising foreign public officials and private sector bribery.
Last week, the Malaysian government challenged a recent legal campaign to allow the former prime minister Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his corruption-related prison sentence under house arrest.
In Singapore, where corruption cases involving public officials are rare, former transport minister S Iswaran was convicted for obtaining gifts worth over S$403,000 (US$297,000) while in office last year, in dealings related to Malaysian property tycoon Ong Beng Seng and local construction businessman Lum Kok Seng. He became the first political office-holder in the city-state to be tried in court in the past 50 years.
